Salaried staff making beneath $55,000 a 12 months can be assured additional time pay beneath the proposed rule.
The Biden administration proposed a serious growth of federal additional time protections on Wednesday in a brand new rule that might hand a elevate to hundreds of thousands of staff throughout the nation forward of Labor Day subsequent week.
The Division of Labor is proposing elevating the brink beneath which salaried staff are assured additional time pay from its present degree of $35,568 to $55,000 a 12 months. Crucially, the proposed rule would automatically raise the wage threshold each three years, guaranteeing the longevity of protections even beneath totally different presidential administrations.
The rule, if finalized, would enable 3.6 million extra staff to entry additional time protections. The company estimates that wages for these staff would improve by a collective $1.3 billion.
“For over 80 years, a cornerstone of staff’ rights on this nation is the best to a 40-hour workweek, the promise that you simply get to go residence after 40 hours otherwise you get greater pay for every additional hour that you simply spend laboring away out of your family members,” mentioned appearing Labor Secretary Julie Su.
“I’ve heard from staff repeatedly about working lengthy hours, for no additional pay, all whereas incomes low salaries that don’t come wherever near compensating them for his or her sacrifices,” Su continued. “In the present day, the Biden-Harris administration is proposing a rule that will assist restore staff’ financial safety by giving hundreds of thousands extra salaried staff the best to additional time protections in the event that they earn lower than $55,000 a 12 months.”
The brand new proposal signifies that extra staff can be assured additional time pay, at time-and-a-half, for work previous 40 hours every week beneath the Honest Labor Requirements Act. The Obama administration had tried to lift the brink to over $47,000, however the plan was shot down after enterprise teams challenged the rule in court docket and Donald Trump replaced the plan with a rule elevating the brink to its present degree in 2019.
Salaried staff over the brink would nonetheless not be assured pay for additional time work beneath the brand new rule. Most hourly staff are already granted additional time protections, no matter wage degree.
The brand new rule would raise the proportion of salaried staff assured additional time pay from 15 %, as estimated by the Financial Coverage Institute, to 27 %, based on labor officers.
Progressive and Democratic lawmakers have been calling for the Biden administration to lift the additional time wage threshold for years. A 12 months in the past on Wednesday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus issued a press release urging Biden to lift the additional time threshold to the fifty fifth percentile of full time salaried staff, or $82,732, by 2026.
This is able to carry the brink as much as match and even exceed the wage restrict of $5,200 that was initially set when it was first established in 1949 — a wage price over $65,000 at this time.
Nonetheless, advocates have praised the proposed rule, saying that it’ll nonetheless profit hundreds of thousands.
“The additional time threshold has not been correctly up to date for practically 50 years, robbing hundreds of thousands of staff of their fundamental wage and hour rights beneath the Honest Labor Requirements Act,” said Heidi Shierholz, Financial Coverage Institute President and former chief economist on the Labor Division. “This proposal is a vital step in making a stronger, fairer economic system.”
As media corporations are downsizing, the world nonetheless desperately wants Truthout.
It’s no secret that it’s a tricky time for unbiased journalism. All over the place you look, media organizations are chopping prices and eliminating important positions. From small, native publications to massive, well-known trade giants, nobody is resistant to this sea change.
Truthout is one of some information publications that continues to be virtually totally funded by readers. Each single present to our group makes it attainable to pay our unbelievable journalists and our small staff of hardworking workers. Your assist lets us report on local weather, labor, LGBTQ rights, policing, schooling, and extra – all from a place of true independence and with our signature concentrate on social justice.
Proper now, we’re conducting an vital fundraiser. We should elevate $21,000 within the subsequent 24 hours. In case you will help us make it by this troublesome time, please make a tax-deductible present at this time.
